Adornments Attends an Event at CJ’s
Adornments At CJ's
On a blustery Sunday afternoon, Adornments headed over to CJ’s Off The Square to see what’s new! It turns out, there’s a lot that’s new at CJ’s. Everything from Cakes to Flowers to Invitations, there was something there to see at this well-attended event. They even offered valet parking and red carpet treatment by !
Here are some of the lovely things we saw while we were there:
Beautiful flower decorations!
Flowers
Wedding day boxed lunches by B Jackson’s:
Wedding Day Boxed Lunches
Offerings include anything from chicken salad on croissants with fresh fruits and cheese (don’t worry, dessert is included too!) to roasted chicken with all the trimmings! All you need to keep you and your wedding party going on the big day!
Box Lunch detail
Cakes by The Cake Shoppe! Everybody likes cake and these are beautiful!
Square tiered cake with coordinating invitations and extras
The Bake Shoppe can do custom flavors and designs- just bring a picture!
Black & White Cake with coordinating extras
The coordinating extras for both of the above cakes were provided by Williamson County Weddings. Speaking of extras, check this party favor out!
Bubble Gum Dispensor Party Favor
Invitations offered by Williamson County Weddings:
Black & White Invitation
Simple, sleek and elegant- look at what unfolds!
Black & White Invitation Detail
This was a great event- there was a lot more to see! For more information, check out Williamson County Weddings and CJ’s Off the Square!
New Product Event at CJ's Off The Square
“A Bride’s Big Day”- A Middle Tennessee find!
The news that your company is closing can be a nightmare, especially when the economy is not at its best, but it can also be an opportunity to find something new! Sometimes, it gives you the opportunity to start a new business doing what you love and helping people along the way! One such business is A Bride’s Big Day. The owner, Sherry, is doing something truly special:
Sherry had been toying with the idea of starting her own business for a long time, but the idea coalesced into a passion while helping her daughter find her dream dress without breaking their budget. “Our budget was revised numerous times, and after doing hours and hours of research, I came up with ideas that metamorphosed into this business. The look on my daughter’s face when she found “the dress” will forever be etched on my mind, as I’m sure many memories will over the years to come. I want to help other brides realize that “moment”, while keeping in mind our economic times don’t require spending loads of money to look fabulous!”
A Bride's Big Day
“I’m just starting things up since I’m closing up the office still, and in the beginning, I plan to use the home studio to set one-on-one appointments with brides and their moms to find a beautiful dress at a fantastic price. What you won’t find at my place is $3,000 designer dresses that are ordered. What you will find are dresses I have found through contacts at unbelievable prices. I’ll also feature vintage gowns for that bride who wants a one-of-a-kind look, but can’t afford the custom price tag. So many of those can be altered and changed up to be made more current by a good tailor. The most important thing to me is that the bride doesn’t feel discount means being treated like she’s at a discount department store. Being a bride is too special to feel like that! I want my walls to be full of wedding photos of brides in gowns supplied by me! The idea of that makes me feel giddy.”
For more information about “A Bride’s Big Day,” visit Sherry’s blog (click here) which features dresses for a variety of tastes, styles and colors, offering both new, previously worn and vintage dresses and accessories. She even has a section on wedding ideas which explores Sherry’s thoughts on wedding traditions, her “Long-Time Love Affair With Textiles And Color” and more!
And the winner is…
It has begun in earnest! The date has been set, the venue chosen and even the officiant secured! (Cheers & choirs of angels!) It was a busy week. Jim and I took Lucinda and Alexis to see One Eleven and Chappy’s
Chappy's on Church
(heretofore I have not written about Chappy’s- let me catch you up briefly: Chappy’s on Church is a French Creole restaurant in downtown Nashville- Fantastic Food! (They even do that wrapping your leftovers in aluminum foil shaped like a swan thing- I know, easily amused am I!) We were looking through the Pink Book and saw, to our surprise, that Chappy’s has a ballroom! The Napoleon Ballroom has a capacity for 300 people, beautiful imported glass chandeliers, and fountains with lion heads lining the walls!
The Bride Room (sorry, no pics of the ballroom)
The best part- the room is free! That is, they require a minimum amount of $5,000 spent of the food & spirits, but the room is complimentary complete with tables, chairs and linens! They will even do the flowers and a custom menu for your event! They have several packages for the food and spirits, so it’s easy to figure out what you want and they will do anything from a multi-course sit-down meal to a buffet with appetizers served on trays. It’s really a great deal for a beautiful room that requires very little decoration (mostly just table decorations and maybe a few flowers here and there) and really great food! The people there are very friendly and helpful (Thanks Suzette, Lucian and, of course, Chappy!)- it’s really a fun place.)
Now, I realize that, after a review like that, you’re expecting my announcement to be that we chose Chappy’s….but we didn’t. We decided that we wanted to have little more control over the feel of the room- it didn’t quite fit with our vision already and there was very little we could do about it- in the end, we decided that it was not quite the right fit for for us despite its many attractions, but it was a close one (we may just try to get them to cater)! We have chosen…(drum roll)…One Eleven! Hurray!
One Eleven
So- we are getting married on October 4, 2009 at One Eleven! It’s such a relief to have actual progress- not we just have to figure everything else out! 😉
Wish me luck!
A Successful Adornments Wedding- Us!
Abdul and Alexis' Wedding Feature on Ashley's Bride Guide
As many of you know, we got started down the path of wedding work when we discovered the addictive power of planning my (Alexis) wedding late last year. Well, for those of you wondering just how that first trial went, our wedding is currently being featured on two wedding blogs!! Ashley of Ashley’s Bride Guide as well as Amy from Williamson County Weddings and CJs off the Square both wrote articles on our wedding this week (I know- how loved are we?!)! So, once again thanks to everyone who chipped in to make our wedding so great! I’m sure that Laura’s upcoming wedding will be even more of a triumph! So check out our features at Wilcowed Blogspot and Ashley’s Daily Scoop! And a big thanks to Ashley for putting us up on her blog! Yay!
The Artists at Adornments
New! We’ve added more artists to the Adornments website- they are all amazing local (and semi-local) artists who create beautiful one-of-a-kind works of art! We have artists who work in all of the following categories: Jewelry, Bead-work, Weaving, Painting, Drawing, Pottery, Wood Turning, and we will soon be welcoming a metal sculptor (we’ll let you know when his work arrives)!
About the Artists
Check them out at our website (click here) or come on in to the store and we’ll tell you all about them!
The Dress
Perhaps one of the most exciting portions of wedding planning is the dress. Let’s face it- no matter what kind of bride you are, you want to look your best- better than you best! You want his jaw to drop when he sees you and for him to know beyond all doubt that he is marrying a GODDESS!!! A very reasonable (most of the time), sweet-tempered (again, most of the time), spirited (always), beautiful (Always! *cough*) pint-sized (comparatively speaking) Goddess (This assumes that Goddesses are larger than people…it’s never been proven). Regardless of your budget, your style, your size or your shape, you want to look GOOD. Not just “This one is nice.” but “I look GOOD!” And as this is an important part of the getting married process, you want the quest itself to go well. There are lots of places you can go and you’ll have a different experience at each one. My foray into the wedding dress shopping world was brief (it only took one day) but quite diverse!
Wedding Dresses
We ventured out- a merry band of three: The Mother of the Bride (Lucinda), The Matron of Honor (Alexis), and The Bride (me!) on a brisk Monday morning. A dutiful bride, I had scheduled appointments with a couple bridal salons in Nashville figuring we’d start close to home (I live in Nashville) and work our way toward Franklin if we had no success. I even came prepared with the appropriate under garments as advised to make it all as easy as possible!
We arrived to our first appointment, coffee in hand, smiles in place, excited to begin and…it was…disappointing. Upon entering, we were greeted by a petite blond with a chipper smile who did not ask our names, did not ask any questions actually. She directed us to the wracks of different designers to pull from and left us to it. A little startled, we complied. We pulled all sorts of dresses, not really knowing what we were looking for and began to notice that the dresses were rather dingy and had a definite odor. In the dressing room itself (shivering, I might add as it was a brisk 61 degrees in there) we discovered that it was far worse than we had thought- the insides of the dresses were COATED with various shades of tan and pink- facial imprints of those who had come before- my skin began to crawl before the first dress had been zipped up! Stalwartly we pressed on- steadfastly NOT looking too closely at the dresses. The petite blond wandered in and out without warning every few dresses or so (luckily she left the clips and my ladies were quite handy with them!). Not the most useful assistant. Needless to say, we did not find a dress there. I still don’t really know if there were any good dresses there or not- upon reflection, it’s hard to know what the dresses would have looked like if you weren’t constantly distracted by a gray patch here and bad smell there. It didn’t matter in the end- no way was there going to be a special “I look GOOD!” moment when you’re thinking how nice a bath would be.
After a suitable recovery period, we proceeded to the next appointment. We went to b Hughes Bridal Formal on Harding Road in Nashville.
b.Hughes Bridal Formal
When we entered, we were greeted by Allison; the store was in disarray as they had just returned from a fashion show, but already, we felt better. Allison was warm and sweet- she showed us the different designers’ wracks and let us browse a bit, pulling any dresses we were interested in and she set them in the dressing room for us. The dresses were beautiful! Some had been mangled by models (Allison had a story for each dress and seemed personally affronted by each injury they had suffered since coming into her care) but all were blessedly clean! Allison made sure that we had all the major shapes and styles to try out- A-lines, Princess cut, Mermaids, and Ball gowns- there was a representative from each. My mother helped me into and out of each (some are amazingly heavy!) and Allison set me up on a step in front of some large mirrors as she clipped each dress where they would be if they were my size. We joked that she needed to order some ugly dresses so that we would have some to say “Definitely no.” to! She really took the time to talk to me about what I liked and disliked about each dress and then made suggestions for other dresses or alterations that could be made. The whole experience was relaxed and fun- just the way it should be for every bride! In the end, the choice was obvious- I actually had one of the moments where you look up into the mirror in a dress and find a big dopey smile and a glowing face. That was all my mother and sister needed to see to know, we were done!
I know you all want to see the dress that we chose- but Jim knows where this blog is! I’ll tell you that it is by Romona Keveza, but that is all!!
Wish me luck!
More Venues!
The search for the perfect wedding venue continues- I know, we’re slow. This last week we visited a few more locations that were fairly promising.
The first was One Eleven.
One Eleven
This is a relatively new venue on Broadway downtown in Nashville. It’s an incredibly versatile site which has done mostly corporate events thus far (They’re having their first wedding in May 2009). What’s great about this space is, well, the view!
The View
Lots of great downtown city scape to look at and the ability to move in or out of doors depending on the weather. The observation deck is completely uncovered (but can be tented) allowing guests to mingle in the open air and look out over the city. The Patio is roofed, but one side is open to the air as well (again, this can be covered should the weather prove inclement) and there is plenty of room for either dancing or setting up tables for eating and chatting.
The Patio- Glass on one side, open air on another!
Sandwiched between the observation deck and the patio is the penthouse- this is only completely closed room in this venue- it is completely walled with large glass windows to allow the indoor people a clear view of everything going on in either outdoor location and there are lots of glass doors that could be left open to provide easy traffic flow (this would however ruin the air conditioning! ;)).
The Penthouse
What was especially nice (aside from the space itself) was how calm and welcoming the Aaron Mayo was when he showed us the space. He was completely open to doing anything we could think of and welcomed any new ideas we had on how best to use the space. It was so pleasant to have someone who was open to anything and willing to help as much or as little as we wanted. Thanks Aaron!
That was our favorite of the day!
Currently our favorites are:
The aVenue (we still love the warm wood of that space!) and One Eleven.
3rd aVenue
One Eleven
Thoughts? We’re looking for ideas, so any suggestions would be useful! We’re really hoping to come to a final decision within the next week or so. And on Monday- the quest for the dress begins…
Wish me luck!!
Valentine’s at Adornments!
As promised previously, I have finished the Valentine’s Heart Pendants!!
Valentine's Heart Pendant
I apologize for the poor photo quality..but you get the idea right? For those of who are really paying attention, no the image hasn’t been flipped… They are all a little different, this isn’t the same pendant that I put up an in progress picture of. They even come in different sizes. What would be the fun in making them all the same??
So today we set up a lovely Valentine’s display in our store, assembling all of our more romantic jewelry (ie. rings, heart pendants, rose quartz jewerly, and some of the Embrace series) along with one of our wood turned ikebana holders (ikebana is the Japanese art form of flower arranging, it’s gaining in popularity in the U.S. so local wood workers have taken up the task of making beautiful holders!) and of course, the obligatory roses!
Valentine's Day at Adornments!
Of course, we’ve decorated the rest of the store a little too, but this is where we wanted to highlight a few pieces.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Valentine's Heart Pendants
Finished Dolphin Earrings & Saturn Pendant
They’re finished! The dolphin earrings that I posted about last time turned out really well! 🙂 I hope Natusko likes them (I can still change the colors if you want!).
Finished Dolphin Earrings
Natsuko also commissioned a Saturn Pendant. Natusko intends it as a gift for a guy- so it had to not be feminine and, as always, it had to be extra special and unique! I had a couple of ideas for this, but one was particularly exciting as it has movable parts! (Ooooohhhh fancy!) I really wanted that movement to give it that little bit of extra something special (it’s a toy as well as jewelry!)- it’s not static and that makes it so much more interesting a piece to wear and to look at. Not to mention there was the added challenge of figuring out how to make that happen! This is the drawing:
Saturn Pendant Drawing
It was a bit more tricky than I thought it would be what with having to make sure everthing could move independently. Also, the pearl that I used to the center piece is, though beautiful, not a perfect circle! So, none of the other circles could be perfect either- they all had to be slightly off so that they would look perfect with the pearl and not draw too much attention to its irregularities. I think it’s a fun piece (I’d wear it!). Check it out:
Saturn Pendant
The inner wire circle spins around the pearl and the pearl can spin too (though much more slowly).
Saturn Pendant Detail
This piece was so much fun to make- a real departure from my usual style and a lot more challenging as I’d never done a piece with movable parts. Thanks Natsuko!
Announcing a new addition!
We’d like to welcome Charlie Thompson to the Adornments guest artist team!!
Charlie specializes in titanium rings with wood inlays (though he does some plain titanium too). He uses all kinds of woods- local and exotic, and boy are these sweet!! Take a look!
Titanium rings with wood inlay by Charlie Thompson
Adornments Watch 